Keepsakes
by Northofthewall
Summary: What does Sam Carter keep in her nightstand? A short fluffy Sam/Jack story.
1. Chapter 1

He was bored and suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to nose through her stuff. He urgently needed to know what Samantha Carter kept in her nightstand. There were two small drawers. Opening the top drawer revealed a jumbled mess. There were painkillers, lip balm, eye mask, a couple of books, pens, a notepad, a small tatty stuffed toy, a small stack of old photos of her family including one of SG-1 with Cassie, some random spare batteries, an old watch, a lost button, a small screwdriver, and tucked at the very back, a medium sized vibrator.

There was nothing there too surprising.

The bottom drawer however... well, that was another matter.

Folded neatly at the top was a BDU shirt. When he pulled it out, the size of it alone hinted that it was one of his from god knows how long ago. Closer inspection confirmed it. There was a lot of stuff underneath the shirt, but his eyes fixed on a yoyo he knew had been his. He'd lost a few over the years so this could have been any of them. There was a stack of notes and cards, just boring birthday cards and Christmas cards, all from him, as well as that valentines card he'd inadvisably sent just that one time. The notes were silly things he'd written to cheer her up or make her smile or just because he'd been bored. There was even a page of his random scribbles from god knows which briefing, but it was during his 'explosion period' which must have been around two years ago maybe? Out from among the cards dropped a small, dried, purple alien flower he remembered absentmindedly giving her one time. There was a large, reddish, alien looking pine cone thing that he had no recollection of, but was pretty sure she wasn't allowed to have stashed away in a drawer in her bedroom off base. That, or the flower, actually. There was a spoon, a small bottle of sand, three smooth pebbles, and a used bullet, none of which he could figure out the significance of. There was a receipt from a coffee shop he figured must be one of the times he'd grabbed coffee off base with her. There were tickets to the movies from that one time they went alone together before wordlessly agreeing it wasn't a good idea. There was a small picture of him that must have been taken at one of the team barbecues they'd had over the years, early on judging by his hair. There was a Champagne cork, a bottle cap, a paint swatch, a pen...

"Oh hell." Sam was back, standing in the doorway, looking a touch sheepish.

"Want to explain?" He grinned up at her.

"Not really sir... Jack, sorry, force of habit. I knew I should have moved that before having you over." She walked across the room, smiling self-consciously.

"Did you steal this stuff from me?" He couldn't help grinning inanely.

She sat down beside him on the bed.

"Actually none of it is stolen. It's all stuff you gave to me... technically... sort of."

"The yoyo?"

"Well. Um. You left it in my lab."

"The shirt? I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to keep these you know."

"It ... ... like you," she mumbled, and blushed adorably.

"What?"

"It smells like you!" She said defensively. "Besides, you left it here. I just... never gave it back," she added, as explanation.

He just grinned at her, not needing to say anything at all.

"This is so embarrassing," she said, rubbing a hand over her face before turning to face him. "Oh stop looking so pleased with yourself," she chided.

"I don't think I can," he grinned, and then kissed her. "Besides, I might have a couple of your things."

"You do?"

"Maybe." He stroked the bare skin of her shoulders. Being able to do that was still a huge thrill.

"Like what?" Her hands rested pleasingly on his belly.

"I'm not telling. You'll have to find out. Here..." He bent to the floor and picked up his t-shirt that she'd flung there last night, and shoved it into her hands. "Have that. If we're going to do this long distance thing... You might need it."

She raised it to her nose for a second, then smiled at him.

"Thanks."

"So...? Can I have those? For my drawer?" He asked with a naughty smile, pointing at the panties she was wearing.

She laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "You'll have to get them off me first," she said in a sultry voice he really hadn't got used to yet. She kissed him.

"I think I can manage that," he murmured into her soft skin and pulled her down onto the bed.

 _Notes:_

 _The scribbles were a page of explosions over a roughly sketched cityscape, on the other side of which Jack had drawn a little cup of coffee and a slice of cake and slid it to her at the end of the briefing._

 _The pine cone was thrown at her playfully and told it was her birthday present, when she complained about being stuck off world on her birthday._

 _The spoon was from sharing a single MRE with one spoon when they were a little short on supplies._

 _The sand was from Abydos._

 _The pebbles had been picked up by Jack and fiddled with for an entire day of negotiations before she had to confiscate them when the aliens got irritated at him juggling them._

 _The bullet was the one Jack received to the back of his flak vest during her rescue from Adrian Conrad._

 _The champagne cork was from their 'Daniel's not dead' party number two, and reminded Sam of getting tipsy and then a little too cosy on the couch with Jack._

 _The bottle cap was one of many that had been flicked across her kitchen and found later._

 _The paint swatch was from when he'd helped paint her kitchen._

 _The pen was actually hers, borrowed and then returned well nibbled and with the clip broken off._


	2. Chapter 2

Sam was on a mission. She had been planning to wait till he was in the shower in the morning, but twenty minutes ago he'd fallen asleep at the other end of the couch. At first this was quite disappointing, although not unexpected given the day he'd had. Then she realised the opportunity this had given her.

So now she was creeping down the dark hallway to his bedroom with footfalls as soft as she could manage. She hadn't learnt the squeaky floorboards of his new place yet, so it was a bit of a challenge. She had to pause a couple of times, out of fear she'd woken him. Why the hell had he left his tool box in the middle of the hallway anyway?!

She made it to his bedroom and padded quietly over to the nightstand on the side he liked to sleep. Maybe it was too obvious, but she had to check anyway. She risked putting the lamp on. She need the light. She opened the top drawer.

 _Try harder_  
 _J x_

"Damn!"  
She sighed, looking down at the hand written note staring back at her. She knew at this point that the game was all over. If he'd predicted this, then there'd likely be notes everywhere she could think to look. She thought hard, wondering if she could somehow skip all the wrong places and figure out the devious hiding place he'd obviously come up with. Or... her mind went into overdrive... maybe he just wanted her to think that!

She groaned at herself. She was overthinking again. She checked the other drawers just in case and then bent down and peaked under his bed. There was nothing except another damn note, which she didn't bother reading. She sat back on the bed with a huff. She had no idea where to look now, and the competitive side of her was hating the idea of finding more of his notes. She was starting to wonder about the high probability of there not being anything in his bedroom at all.

"Have you given up already?"

She almost jumped clean out of her skin.

"Oh god damn it Jack. Give a girl a heart attack!"

He suppressed a grin and came over from where he'd been watching her at the doorway. "So where've you looked?"

"How did you...? I didn't hear a thing."

"Sam, come on, black ops," he said, sitting beside her on the bed.

"You weren't even asleep," she realised.

"I was napping," he shrugged casually, with a hint of smugness.

"It's not here is it?"

"What's not here?"  
He took her hand and started playing with her fingers innocently.

"You know, or you wouldn't have left notes, mister smart ass."

"Hey, that's General smart ass thank you very much. So you found some notes huh?"

Damn.  
"Did you lie?"

"About having some of your stuff? Kinda," he said, with a twinge of amusement muddled with guilt.

"What does that mean?"

"Come," he said, taking her by the hand and tugging.

She let him lead her to a small room that looked as if it's intended purpose was an office but was currently overrun with boxes yet to be unpacked and piles of books and junk. She looked around hopelessly, trying to ignore the seemingly permanent layer of dust covering his poor neglected computer.

He gestured to the back of the door and she turned around.

"Is that... is that me?"

She was staring at a faded but accurate depiction of some red flowers painted on a large sheet of paper, and in the corner, a rough stick figure with yellow hair.

"Yeah," he chuckled, "Remember Merrin? The Orbanians? I was trying to teach her how to draw... you know, properly."

"Oh! Of course."  
She vaguely remembered him mentioning Merrin painting her, although it was a long time ago now. And of course he'd kept it. Dogs and kids... always guaranteed to turn him into a big softy.

"She's really captured your likeness don't you think?" he teased.

She gave him a wry smile. "Did you keep that coz of Merrin or me though?"

"Well I don't think I would have kept it if it wasn't featuring stick figure Carter."

"So that's your only keepsake? It's not that I mind, it's just... why the notes?"

"For fun. Coz I know you wouldn't be able to resist peaking around," he said, suppressing another smile. He was still holding her hand and was absentmindedly and ruefully tracing little circles on her wrist with his other fingers. "I do have the gifts you've gotten me. Maybe the odd photograph. I'm just not that sentimental. Hey, I have you, what else do I need?"

His goofy half smile melted her, the way it always did. He wrapped his arms around her in a way that felt a little bit like he'd won the game. That would not do.

"Hmm, I was thinking of sending you some, erm, _personal_ snaps from Nevada, but if you're not sentimental..."  
She pressed her body against his and smiled innocently.

"Oh, hey now, let's not be hasty..."

Yeah, she'd won.


End file.
